Agbekoya issues ultimatum to Fashola

The Supreme Council of the Yoruba socio-cultural and revolutionary group, Agbekoya has issued a 21-day ultimatum to the Lagos State Government to redress an alleged injustice caused by the demolition of its shrine at Logun-Logun, Oko-Obi area of Igbo-Olumu, Agric, Ikorodu Lagos.

The President of the Society Worldwide, Chief Kamoru Aremu who spoke with Saturday Vanguard after a meeting last Sunday in Ajegunle area of Lagos, described the demolition of the societyâ€™s property as â€œoppressive, insultive, uncalled for and a calculated attempt by men of the Lagos State Task Force on Environmental Sanitation to provoke the society into taking drastic action.â€

Chief Aremu said he had earlier forwarded a petition to Governor Babatunde Fashola on the issue but there was no response. He alleged that the Task Force, led by Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP), Bayo Suleiman, invaded Igbo-Olomu on Tuesday, 11 August, 2009 and demolished the property used as a weekly meeting venue, every Friday.

The farmersâ€™ group said the four plots of land on which the shrine stood, was purchased in 1996 at N1.2 million from Agbajigi family of Igbo-Olomu, Ogun State.

He alleged that artifacts and shrines where members perform rituals were burnt to ashes by the invading Task Force men.

Responding to the allegation, the Task Force said it invaded the shrine based on information that illegal bunkering took place on the land, an allegation Chief Aminu repeatedly denied.

â€œSince the erection of the structure on the four plots, it had always served as a meeting place and it also housed the groupâ€™s effigies and other traditional artifacts. It is wicked and untrue for anybody to link us with bunkering,â€ Aremu said.

He lamented that not only was the groupâ€™s property and artifacts burnt to ashes, the house of the authentic Baale of Igbo-Olomu, Chief Nurudeen Sanni, was razed down by intruders led by an alleged Impostor, Abiodun Jinadu.

He accused the Task Force of allowing itself to be used by Jinadu, who, he said, had once written an undertaken to the Police to be of good behaviour in the area.

Apart from the petition to Governor Fashola, Aremu said the group has informed prominent Yoruba traditional rulers about the development.

Asked what the groupâ€™s next line of action will be should the state government fail to respond, Aremu said: â€œWe shall react; we are not threatening them; we are promising them. This is why we are urging Governor Fashola to intervene quickly in order to avoid an ugly situation,â€ Aremu concluded.